work. The Christian women nearly all ride on the seat of their wagons beside their husbands and not squatted down behind in the old way which indicated their inferiority and degradation.

Our church and women's missionary organization have cheerfully contributed from exceedingly scanty means to all the branches of our Congregational work. While our school on account of the reduced appropriations has been reduced to forty-two pupils, our further outstation among the Mandan people, which for two years has been closed, has this fall been reopened, and one of the lady missionaries is already living among them in her little log house. Shall I speak of the needs of our school boys and girls? You patient mothers know so well what are the needs of forty-two play-loving active children, who wrestle, play football, tag, jump rope and barbed wire fences; and the needs of Indian boys and girls are nearly identical with those of the same number of white children.

I think I have never yet heard an Indian Christian man or woman offer a prayer in which I have not heard this petition, "Oh Father in Heaven bless all the white people who love us and send us these teachers to tell us of God's ways." Shall we not return their grateful thought, by loving prayers, generous and sympathetic interest and every practical aid?

EXTRACTS FROM ADDRESS BY MISS HELEN S. LOVELAND.

I have come to tell you something of Orange Park, the town, the school established there, and the trouble connected with it. The village is situated on the west bank of the St. John's River, which at that point is a beautiful expanse of water three miles wide. Nature has been very prodigal in that section. The trees and plants are of a luxurious growth. Flowers are numerous. Every kind of fruit is plentiful. Because of these natural advantages, general climate and apparent fitness for orange growing, a Northern settlement was made. The people were from various Northern States. The principal industry was orange growing.

Five years ago when the Association was looking for a favorable place in Florida in which to locate a school, attention was drawn to this town. The place was selected because of its healthful situation and beautiful surroundings. The people in the town were anxious such a school should be established. To secure this the town voted the Association a considerable tract of land on which to build, and in addition a large wooded park. This was done with the understanding that all children in the town should be allowed to attend school.

The buildings belonging to the institution are a church, in which both white and colored people worship together; the Girls' Hall, in which the girls, teachers and matron live; in the rear of this, connected by a passage way, is the dining-room and kitchen; next, to the west, is the school building, containing the chapel, study room and recitation rooms; yet farther to the west of this is the Boys' Hall, in which the principal and his wife live, in charge of the boys. Back of the two last mentioned buildings is the shop where the boys do the industrial work.

The school has entered upon its fifth year. It has grown steadily and surely. The work done has been thorough and of a high grade. Up to the present time there have been in all 252 pupils connected with the school. There have been five teachers aside from the music, sewing and manual training teachers, principal and matron.

The students are instructed in the common school branches. The work in the normal grades is designed to prepare them for teaching. The girls have classes in sewing, are taught to care for their rooms, and each one does her own laundry work. A certain amount of time, whether in the dining-room, halls, kitchen or laundry, is required. In this plan there are two objects; to aid the pupils in paying their school expenses and to teach them the arts of housekeeping. Each boy is required to give especial care to his room. A certain amount of work is also required of them. It consists of yard work, carrying mail, sweeping school buildings, attending to the lamps, etc.

When there have been white boarding pupils they have had separate rooms and a separate table in the common dining-room.

Bible lessons are given twice a week by the pastor. A school prayer meeting is held every Thursday afternoon in the school chapel. In this meeting the majority of the pupils take part, and much interest is shown. The Christian Endeavor, however, is the most enthusiastic meeting in which the students engage. It is held in the chapel of the church, and attended by both town people and the school. The colored students have shown themselves efficient committee workers and leaders. There have been several conversions in the society, and there is great reason to be encouraged. It is in this field that personal work is needed and is effective. So the school is educating the pupil in different lines, industrial, intellectual, and religious.

Last May the Governor of Florida signed a bill, now well known, framed by Superintendent Sheats, of the State Educational Department, which was aimed directly at the Orange Park school. What Mr Sheats' real intentions are in regard to the colored race is but too plain. One can but perceive, if his policy is followed, that their education in Florida practically ceases. During the last session of the Florida Legislature he requested it to enact a law prohibiting any others than negroes from teaching schools for negroes, except in normal instruction in institutes and summer schools. This did not become a law, but it was not the superintendent's fault.

Last May in Lake County only nine candidates obtained certificates. There were sixty-seven schools to be supplied with teachers. This closed the schools. During last year one hundred and sixteen schools in the State, mostly colored, for the want of teachers were not held at all. A county official remarked that this examination law would probably "result in retiring nearly or quite all the colored teachers in a few years." Such a law "is a barbarous souvenir to make the country remember its bloody dealings with its black brother." "Though slavery is dead, its spirit yet lives; 'the serpent's head is crushed, but his tail still writhes, and sometimes it lashes out spitefully.'" We who are engaged in teaching in Orange Park are glad that the American Missionary Association is to test, and is already testing, the validity of this law. In contesting this law aimed at the Orange Park school, the Association takes up a question which has arisen before, but has never been settled. Theoretically, in the United States all men, whether white or black, enjoy equal civil liberties; practically, in the South, they do not. If the law is found to be unconstitutional, that will go a long way in establishing equal liberties for all.

Meanwhile the school continues as before. The school and the Association need your assistance. The great work before the Association requires both the money and the prayers of the Christian people.

ADDRESS OF MRS. HARRIS,